Look to the Sun

By Dale Maharidge

Published: April 25, 2001

PETROLIA, Calif.—
As I write this, I can be assured of something most Californians could not: My computer won't flash off in a blackout. I'm at my home, using power from my own solar power system. I make all of my electricity and store it in batteries -- enough to run lights, a computer, fax, power tools, a water pump.

The latest estimate is that California's failed experiment with deregulation will cost consumers $5 billion annually in increased rates. Watching the sun glint off my solar panels, I was moved to find out how many of them could be purchased for $1 billion. The answer is about one million 110 watt, 110 volt, utility-ready panels, the easiest kind for consumers to use. (My system uses five panels). At peak power output on a California summer afternoon -- when blackouts are most likely to occur -- those one million panels would produce about 100 megawatts of electricity.

What if California issued bonds now to buy solar panels, saving consumers from some of the six years of steep price increases they are expected to have to absorb? Raising $30 billion would purchase 30 million 110-watt solar panels. If the state then simply gave these panels to schools, businesses and homeowners, they would produce 3,000 megawatts -- the output of three large coal-fired power plants.

It doesn't sound like much; California faces crisis when consumption goes over 40,000 megawatts. On 34 days last summer, usage exceeded that by several thousand. But with those extra 3,000 megawatts and reasonable conservation measures, like weatherizing and turning off lights after working hours, California would face no blackouts this summer. And the panels would produce power for 40 years with no coal or gas to purchase, little maintenance and no pollution.

Even if there were politicians willing to push for solar power, however, we couldn't put this plan into effect immediately. The total output of solar panels in the United States was only 77 megawatts in 1999, the latest year for which figures are available. And three-fourths of the panels we now make go overseas, mostly to Germany and Japan, which have aggressive solar power programs.

This is a situation where so-called big government is needed. If California announced it wanted to spend $30 billion on solar power, you can be sure manufacturers would gear up. And over time, the price of the panels would fall as the makers competed.

Rather than support the development of solar power, President Bush has proposed cutting funds for research on alternative energy. He's pushing coal and nuclear power. Implied in this policy is the notion that solar power is something exotic that doesn't really work. But it does work. If we rely solely on the free market to bring it to fruition, it could take decades for solar power to reach a level where it produces significant power. We can't wait that long.

Utilities argue that panels don't work at night. But they produce power in precisely the hours when air conditioners are roaring and the most power is consumed.

Even if we set aside the environmental argument for solar power, the economic one should be enough.

Dale Maharidge, visiting professor of communication at Stanford, won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction in 1990.